kgallen
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Posts posted by kgallen
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42 minutes ago, Edward Z88 said:
You don't have to upgrade your fixtures if you don't want to. Your cues will continue to use these fixtures without any issues.
Hi Edward, thanks! - But there are some "limitations" with staying with the "red" fixtures though aren't there - like not being able to do fixture swap-out/morphing?
Of course any fixtures designed by the user using the Fixture Tools will always be "red" and carry these limitations.
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1 hour ago, Gerran said:
Since it's a rather quiet time around here i thought I'd update our FLX with the latetst ZerOS version, but now all my fixtures seem to have become 'Non-library fixtures'.
I skipped ZerOS 7.11, I hope that didn't 'break' anything? Was there a library change that i wasn't aware of?
I think that happened with 7.11 due to the underlying library format change to support multi-cell fixtures.
I'm in a similar place with mine and went through an exercise of trying to find the "updated" library fixtures for the many fixtures I have. I didn't find it a particularly quick process, in part because of the manufacturer versus brand partitioning. I think the desk could be much more helpful here in finding the equivalent and supporting a better search.
I did question and document my experience on this forum, I'm not just complaining now, and it seemed in accordance with what the software does, but I don't think the situation is particularly good. Some enhancements were filed or promoted as a result of feedback, so it's worth you also having a play and noting your thoughts as Z88 are generally very receptive to user comments.
(The linked thread is in the Beta Test forum, some users might not be able to access it).
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24 minutes ago, RichardNR3 said:
Have never used tracking or move on dark!
On FLX , tracking is not scary. With SmartTag enabled tracking will seem to you as Cue Only, but will give you some behind the scenes benefit as you move to more non-conventional fixtures.
Move on dark just works in the background for any fixture that needs to do some ‘prep’, but your programming style can stop MOD working when you need it to. Cue Only mode is the main Achilles Heel.
My rigs are between 50% and 75% conventional too. It’s worth getting into the habit of using the ‘more advanced’ style to future proof your learning. Take a look at the excellent videos Edward has put on YouTube. At least one of these will also help you debug the scenario you raise here.
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From your screenshots what I think is happening is the default trigger threshold is 5%. As you move up the fader the LEDs intensity raises but the colour trigger doesn’t happen until 5%.
You should set the playback button to GO function (Setup+Playback) and press that button before raising the fader to ‘prep’ your LEDs.
You could try reducing the trigger threshold and/or disabling release on lower if that would work in the context of your other playbacks. The latter could cause issues though if you want to overlay playbacks.
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8 minutes ago, Edward Z88 said:
No problem at all. Easily done!
...and as a bonus we get Edward to remind us all again how to use "Remove" 😝
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If they are all the same type in the same mode (ie identical patch and parameters) then yes I believe that should work…
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Re-inspect your handy-work carefully.
- Did you create a solder bridge?
- Did you damage a pad?
- Did you take antistatic precautions?
- Did you dislodge a cable when reassembling?
- Did you accidentally change any DIP switches?
- Did you use the correct fader part? (i.e. did you buy from Z88 or a service centre - if you're used to repairing sound equipment I'm assuming you know how to identify the correct component, value and curve type...)
Maybe @KWR88 can tell you how to get into test mode to test all of the faders and buttons.
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12 hours ago, martin-144 said:
I will definitely try your tip with "1 THRU @ .", it seems kind of awkward right now but I will try it for sure.
You can programme a keys macro and assign to a UDK if you want.
I did this last show but I never used it, I’ve got used to typing the key sequence!
If you use the macro you can automatically get the cue named at the same time (e.g. DBO or Blackout to your pref).
The other option is ENTER ENTER @. But I think this has the downside if you edit earlier cues and those changes track forwards you will no longer have a blackout.
@Edward Z88 to advise!
Kevin
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Here-here / hear-hear (whatever the heck it is).
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Jon - none of us can keep up with your email address changes! 🤣
eaton.comsignify.comzero88.comvarilite.com?-
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2 hours ago, Edward Z88 said:
No it wouldn't! Manual updated!
🤣😜👍
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2 hours ago, Edward Z88 said:
Let me know your thoughts.
Fantastic 🙂👍
Save Setup & Palettes: This options saves everything EXCEPT cues and UDKs.
So as a tester: this would include user MACRO definitions? 🙃
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4 hours ago, Edward Z88 said:
All information on saving show files to USB storage is available here...
Side topic - Edward could you improve the document to explain Save Setup Only and Save Setup & Palettes. They are mentioned but there is no description of what "Setup" information is - of course I could guess but the documentation needs to be explicit and say what is (and isn't included). Palettes is hopefully more obvious but I think the documentation should still be more explicit, if nothing else, to mention anything in this scope that is excluded. For example are the picture images included in Colour Palettes? A contrived example I admit, but this is exactly why the documentation does actually need to say and not assume.
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8 hours ago, martin-144 said:
I guess this may be due to the fact that my desk is in "cue only" mode at the moment. I thought it would be easier for me to handle in a theatre environment, but now it seems it brings some limitations with it.
The second thing I noticed is that I cannot run two effects in parallel. Whichever effect I start later will interrupt the effect started before and stop it. Is this another limitation of "cue only" mode or am I doing something wrong here? I am quite sure that I only tagged the parameters needed for the particular effect.
Yea I can see Cue Only is a big limitation here, particularly stopping you overlaying operations since "all data is recorded in all cues" (or at least that's how the desk plays them back regardless of how the information is represented in the internal datastructure) - so you lose the ability of another cue taking control over a parameter.
I came to FLX from Fat Frog. On Fat Frog the few times I used Partial mode I ran back to Full mode because I lost control of what Partial was doing. I've not had the same experience with FLX. I'm always in Tracking On mode and never have I felt the need or even the inclination to go to Cue Only mode. Compared to really advanced users, I don't do anything "that fancy" although I do have a reasonable number of LED and mover fixtures (although surprisingly on my last show, conventional fixtures did outnumber LEDs 2:1 which was unusual, usually it's closer to 1:1).
So, even as a "low-to-medium complexity" user myself, I'd encourage you away from Cue Only to Tracking. It really isn't at all scary, and SmartTag pretty much makes Tracking work the same way as Cue Only for 95% of cases and move on dark works beautifully in the background [1]. It's only when you want some finer grained control (or Remove!) do you need to start fiddling with SmartTag in my experience (which is theatre). I've had my FLX since 2015, so have done quite a few shows with it.
Go on, you know you want to!
Kevin
[1] Tip: Programme a blackout with "1 THRU @ ."
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Eric,
Coming back to your initial question: I agree I would not use a USB stick for "long term" storage. I copy the show files from the USB stick onto my PC which as a RAID NAS attached. The USB stick is purely a mechanism to get data to and from the FLX and my main computer. In this respect, it's adequate.
Maybe I interpreted your initial question wrong. USB sticks are of course a portable medium. SSD (in terms of the solid-state HDD replacement) is more usually semi-permanently attached inside a computer - they usually have some version of SATA interface. This isn't hot-pluggable in the way that USB memory sticks are, so "SSD" wouldn't be a replacement for USB on the FLX.
Kevin
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When plugged into FLX front panel or via a USB hub in rear port I haven't had an issue with USB sticks (Zero88 or other branded) becoming unusable or corrupted. Aside: The issue I do have, is since the USB sockets are not labelled on the FLX, is knowing which of the USB keys is associated with the port name provided by the GUI.
I have had issues with USB sticks (including a Zero88 one) being corrupted and becoming unusable when connected to a Windows10 machine, but not when connected to FLX.
I don't believe an SSD card would be any more reliable. The underlying Flash memory technology is the same, only the interface is different, and I don't have any reason to trust SSD over USB.
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I was just reading a reddit article and it made me think about the issue many of us have with non-premium LED fixtures and their inability to dim nicely at the bottom end. The suggestion in this thread is to add a delay to the dimming instructions to LED fixtures to help them blend with traditional fixture dimming. Maybe this is something that could be added to a fixture in patch - a delay to the dim value being output. (This would be analogous in sound to applying a delay to an audio output for particular physical outputs).
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My extra 2p worth too, if the issue is with an Effects palette, then I've found it easier to delete the darn thing and start again. I think the last time I had that issue Edward agreed that is often the easiest approach! Above should be good though for a normal cue or single cue playback.
Let us know if it worked!
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I just looked in the manual. Also you need SmartTag *disabled*.
Somewhere on this forum you'll find me endlessly asking the same question, and Edward patiently answering.
https://zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks/updating-cues/update-options#remove
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I always struggle with this, but your friend is the HOME key since this tags all parameters of a fixture.
So select the fixtures you want to remove. Press HOME.
Press and hold UPDATE to get the options box up and enable REMOVE.
Press the playback you want to remove this stuff from.
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Without wishing to short-circuit @Davidmk 's excellent response, once you've gotten your head around the structure of the system it would be worth patching say 48 "dimmers" on the desk and seeing what (if anything) responds to channels 1 thru as-high-as-you-fancy. There is a high chance that conventional dimmers will start at address 1.
Of course to do that you need to have located the supply isolation for the dimmers and any other kit rigged, which is the opening part of @Davidmk's reply.
@james_ letting us know where you are geographically would help too. You don't need to give out the name of the school publicly on here. A city/town would do for a start. Best of all, add it to your Forum profile.
Also I'm with @KWR88, if this was a professional install, there must be some sort of documentation somewhere. Only the most cowboy of installers would have left you with absolutely nothing. Roughly how old is the install? (1-2 years, 5, 10 years, 20 years???) Are there stickers anywhere for the installer/supplier who should have some records of the main info we need here - accepting some details of the install/kit might have been changed post the install date.
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14 hours ago, AdamSk said:
Just thought I'd add that after replacing the connector with help from some speedy next day delivery the Alphapack worked perfectly again!
Great news, thanks for letting us know! Here's to another 20 years of use!
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26 minutes ago, Edward Z88 said:
(I’m currently on holiday as I’m moving house, so can’t give this my full attention!)
Sorry Edward! Hope it's going ok! You seem to have found your laptop at least. Hope you also found the bread and baked beans! 😆
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Re-use or start again?
in General Discussion
Posted
A conventional fixture is a very simple electrical device. If they ‘fail PAT’ then the fix to make them ‘pass PAT’ should be very straightforward. If they fail earth bond replace the earth bonding inside the lantern and the main flex with 180 C silicone. If they fail insulation then just the main flex should do it.
I think you came here from BlueRoom. If so I’m glad to hear you are going to keep you conventionals (for now at least!).